Breakout Speakers

• The We The People Convention is thrilled to offer a lineup depth of breakout sessions and speakers that is unparallelled at any convention across the country. We have speakers from national conservative policy and politic organizations like The Heritage Foundation, FreedomWorks, and more. We speakers that have “walked the walk” and are able to offer you the training, information and inspiration you need to make a difference in November. Don’t be left out!  Buy your tickets here!

  Deneen Borelli	Deneen Borelli is the author of “Blacklash: How Obama and the Left are Driving Americans to the Government Plantation.” Deneen is also a Fellow with FreedomWorks. Deneen promotes the importance of personal responsibility and the benefits of free market policies as a means for social advancement. Deneen currently serves as an official contributor on the Fox News Channel programs has also appeared on MSNBC, CNN, the BBC and C-SPAN. She has also been published in the Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Chicago Tribune, Sacramento Bee, Baltimore Sun, Washington Examiner and Washington Times. She has also been a frequent speaker at political rallies and events, including the FreedomWorks 9.12 March on D.C. that drew a crowd estimated at over 800,000 people.  Her session, “The Progressive Agenda’s Threat to Liberty” will examine the threat to liberty posed by President Obama’s progressive policies (stimulus money, ObamaCare, war on fossil fuels) & the liberal black establishment’s race card.
  Rob Gordon	As senior advisor for strategic outreach, Robert Gordon establishes and builds working relationships with new audiences and potential allies in championing ideas and policy solutions from The Heritage Foundation that are rooted in individual freedom, limited government, free markets, a strong national defense and traditional values.  Before joining Heritage in 2008, Gordon directed several conservation organizations and, from 2003 to 2006, served on committee staff in the House of Representatives. Working for the House Committee on Resources, he helped craft the Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act (HR 3824), which passed the House with substantial bipartisan support. He also assisted in the committee’s oversight and investigative duties, including international environmental programs and funds derived from excise taxes on hunting and fishing.  Rob Session, “Conservative Environmental Principles” presents environmental principles and polices for those who champion individual freedom, limited government and free markets.
  David Azerrad	As Associate Director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for Principles and Politics, Azerrad helps oversee what essentially is The Heritage Foundation’s “mini-university” for lectures, seminars, research papers and publications that teach the tenets of the American political tradition to policymakers, elected leaders and the public at large. Azerrad is a doctoral candidate in politics at the University of Dallas, writing a dissertation on the foundations of John Locke’s political thought. While there, he taught the course “Principles of American Politics” to undergraduates.   David’s sessions are “We Still Hold These Truths”, which discusses the principles that define us as conservatives which were first articulated in our founding documents, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution; and “The Progressive Liberal Assault on the Founders’ Principles”, which discusses how modern progressive-liberalism grows out of a rejection of our founding principles and is based on a completely different understanding of equality, liberty and democracy.
  Gary L. Rathbun	Gary is the President/CEO of Private Wealth Consultants, Ltd., a fee based Wealth Management and consulting firm started in 1981 in Toledo, OH. He is a licensed principal and registered investment advisor throughout the United States, and has authored or co-authored 5 books in his field.  Gary hosts the syndicated radio program “Eye on Your Money” twice weekly at 6:05 PM EST on WSPD, WONW, WHLO, and WNCO, as well as a daily radio program, “After the Bell” 4:06 EST on WSPD.  This is Gary’s second year speaking a the convention.  Gary has two sessions, “Crony Capitalism”, an expose on the how government corrupts business, and “History of Taxation in America”, a histor ical look at how the tax code grew to be many times longer than the King James Bible.
  Michael Sanera	Michael Sanera is Director of Research and Local Government Studies at the John Locke Foundation. He has previously worked for The Heritage Foundation, the Competitive Enterprise Institute and Claremont Institute. In the early 1990s, Sanera was the founding president of the Goldwater Institute in Arizona, a state-based think tank studying Arizona public policies, and served in the Reagan Administration as an Assistant Director for Planning and Evaluation, assisting with President Reagan’s reforms of the federal civil service system. His breakout session will detail the benefits of the federalism system in courts, law enforcement, and the bubbling up of government policies.
  Linda Gorman	Linda Gorman PhD (economics) is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Health Care Policy Institute at the Independence Institute, a state-based free market think tank in Golden, Colorado. A former academic economist, she has written extensively about the problems created by government interference in health care decisions and the promise of consumer directed health care. She was appointed to the Colorado Blue Ribbon Commission for Healthcare Reform where she co-authored one of the Commission’s minority reports. Linda’s breakout session will present a positive, free market alternative to the President’s healthcare reform.
  Zachary Freeman	Zachary Freeman (@freeman_zachary) is the editor in chief of the College Conservative (www.thecollegeconservative.com) and a recent graduate in Business Finance from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Born in Nashville, Tennessee and raised in nearby Franklin, Zachary Freeman experienced extraordinary liberal bias and academic discrimination at his government-funded college and founded TheCollegeConservative. After authoring Free Money Please!, a financial guide for high school students and parents preparing for college and searching for private scholarship money, he saw the incredible dysfunction of the education system. Zach will talk about his experiences and what tools are available for conservative students in this system in his session “Conservatives on Campus: Fighting Indoctrination” with Vince Tornero, and also be a panelist on “Reaching into New Demographics: Panel Session”
  Vince Tornero	Vince is the Director of Media for the College Conservative (www.thecollegeconservative.com) (@VinceTornero). He currently is a Communications major at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. Vince is the host of TheCollegeConservative’s Weekly Radio Show, “True Conviction,” which airs Monday nights at 9:00pm Eastern time, here. Vince will join fellow College Conservative Zachary Freeman in “Conservatives on Campus: Fighting Indoctrination” and also be a panelist on “Reaching into New Demographics: Panel Session”.
  Linda Bowyer, PhD	Dr. Linda Bowyer is a professor emeritus of Finance at the University of Toledo. She has a PhD in Economics from Iowa State University, with fields in Monetary Theory and Industrial Organization.  Linda is also a founding board member of the Northwest Ohio Conservative Coalition, a federally registered Political Action Committee supporting conservative candidates and causes in the Toledo area. She is the co-host of “Eye on Your Money” with Gary Rathbun on WSPD1370AM and other Clear Channel radio stations in Northern Ohio. Linda’s breakout session is “Monetary Policy:  Yesterday and Today” While many people focus on the federal budget deficit and national debt, the role of the central bank and monetary policy also directly impacts the economy and financial market stability.  This session will examine the history of central bank intervention and how Federal Reserve policy impacts interest rates, inflation and economic activity.
  Anita MonCrief	Anita MonCrief is an advisory board member of True the Vote and is the Editor-in-Chief of Emerging Corruption, but she is best known as the ACORN/Project Vote Whistleblower.  Anita attended the University of Alabama where she majored in political science and history.  In 2008 as an ACORN employee, she came forward publicly as the confidential source of the New York Times ACORN corruption story to expose the damage that ACORN has done to the impoverished and marginalized communities, as well as its rampant voter fraud. She also began to blog about fraud within the ACORN/Project Vote network of corporations.  ACORN filed a lawsuit in an attempt to silence her, which was dismissed in 2010.  Anita has appeared on numerous radio and television programs including The O’Reilly Factor, The Laura Ingraham Show, The Sean Hannity Radio show and Fox News programs. She is a regular contributor to Big Government, RedState, Hot Air, NetRight Daily, NewsReal Blog and other Conservative news websites.  MonCrief learned the intricacies of Community Organizing and she is helping Americans fight fire with fire.  MonCrief travels around the country to discuss how the movement can benefit from what she experienced on the other side of the fence. She insists that it’s extremely important to be able to understand the tactics used by community organizers. Anita’s session  “Election Integrity” will focus on both her experiences and the history of active encouragement of voting fraud by the Democratic Party since 1960. She will also be a panel speaker “Reaching Into Under-Represented Groups”, a look at how to expand the Conservative movement to young adult, Jewish and Black voters. This is Anita’s second year at the convention.
  Wayne Brough	Wayne T. Brough is the Chief Economist and Vice President of Research at FreedomWorks. He received a Ph.D. in economics from George Mason University, with fields in industrial organization and public choice. Dr. Brough previously worked at the Office of Management and Budget, focusing on transportation regulations; the United States Agency for International Development, focusing on market reforms in Africa; and in the research branch of an investment bank, where he covered U.S. domestic policies. He has testified before Congress and regulatory agencies on a number of issues. Wayne’s session “The EPA and the Environment” will focus in on how the politics of the progressive agenda have radicalized the EPA into being an uncontrolled force bypassing the constitutional authority of Congress.
  Dean Clancy	Dean Clancy is FreedomWorks’ Legislative Counsel and Vice President, Health Care Policy. He leads FreedomWorks’ efforts to reverse the government takeover of health care and adopt a patient-centered approach. Dean is also an expert on the federal budget. Dean boasts a deep expertise in domestic and fiscal policy, having served as the top White House budget official on health care, Medicare, Social Security, and other mandatory spending programs. He has also served as executive director of the President’s Council on Bioethics and was a senior policy adviser to House Majority Leader Dick Armey. Dean’s session, “ObamaCare Replacement”, will focus on the conservative answer to the ObamaCare, once it either has been ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, or a new President and Congress take over the reigns of government.
  Mary Ellen Beatty	Mary Ellen has spent her career engaging in grassroots politics. As Director of Citizen Outreach at the Franklin Center, she played a major role in launching the new Citizen Watchdog program, which provides citizens with the tools and techniques to hold their local governments accountable. Prior to the Franklin Center, she worked with Americans for Prosperity, helping their state chapters promote their message of free markets and limited government. Additionally, Mary Ellen helped train student journalists through the Leadership Institute, encouraging young people to set up campus newspapers to expose waste, fraud and liberal bias in higher education. In her session “Opposition Research: Vetting Public Officials, Candidates and Organizations”, learn that too often the establishment media does not thoroughly vet organizations, political candidates and other important public figures. Conservatives can no longer believe the PR spin about our political leaders and influencers. Learn several strategic online research tools to uncover information about people that the public has a right to know about.
  James O'Keefe	James O’Keefe is president of Project Veritas, a non-profit organization dedicated to training citizen journalists nationwide. James’ investigations expose corruption and malfeasance in major taxpayer-funded institutions, including ACORN, Planned Parenthood, NJEA, NPR and Medicaid. James is also committed to empowering the next generation of citizen journalists. Through Project Veritas, James has personally trained and equipped dozens of citizen journalists in an effort to create transparency in government spending. James is a graduate of Rutgers University and has received a Congressional Resolution praising him for his work and is a recipient of the Robert Novak Award for Journalistic Excellence. In “How Onlne Video is Changing the Political Landscape”, learn how to expose government corruption and media bias using nothing more than a hand-held camera and a passion for more government transparency. Find out how you can change the media narrative and affect the political landscape in your own local community.
  David Spielman	David Spielman is the Campaigns Coordinator at FreedomWorks. He joined FreedomWorks in 2010 after spending time in Arizona as the Senior Executive Policy Advisor on an Arizona Congressional campaign. David graduated from Salisbury University in May of 2009 with a B.A. in Political Science. He got his start in grassroots creating a campus TV show with his College Republicans called, “Politics in Action” which discussed political issues from the perspective of the youth. David spent time in college volunteering on various campaigns and helping organize his college campus. He is currently finishing his Master’s degree in Public Policy from New England College and will be graduating in the spring of this year. David is the creator of FreedomWorks initiative Kosher Tea, an outreach for the Jewish community which he hopes will help bring Jewish voters into the Tea Party. Married in 2010 to his wife Kelly, who is a teacher, David is a big believer in school choice and is currently fighting to make education reform a priority within the grassroots.
  Trent Seibert	Trent Seibert, award-winning investigative reporter, has covered numerous transparency and government corruption issues, including exposing Al Gore’s hypocritical high rate of personal energy use. He is currently the founder and editor of Texas Watchdog, a Houston-based nonprofit journalism organization, but he started his professional daily journalism career in 1996 at his hometown NJ paper, The Bridgeton News.  Later, he was noticed for his work at The Gloucester County Times by The Denver Post, where he became a frequent award winner, largely for his political coverage. He has also worked as an editor at The Tuscaloosa News, an on-air investigative reporter for WKRN-Channel 2 in Nashville and has worked for the Tennessee Center for Policy Research. In his session, “Investigative Reporting Skills for Citizen Activist”, learn to think like an investigative reporter, identify potential leads and expose backdoor deals at the state and local levels. Find out where to look for waste, fraud, and abuse, and who to interview to get the real story that will make an impact and force change. You will find out how to access and research FBI files, Federal agency records, campaign contributions, and union disclosure amounts from the Department of Labor.
  Myron Ebell	Myron Ebell is director of energy and global warming policy at CEI. He also serves as director of Freedom Action, a web-based grassroots activist organization loosely affiliated with CEI, and chairs the Cooler Heads Coalition, which comprises over two dozen non-profit groups in this country and abroad that question global warming alarmism and oppose energy rationing policies. In March 2010, the Financial Times called Mr. Ebell “one of America’s most prominent climate-change skeptics.” In July 2009, the Business Insider’s Green Sheet named him third in its list of the Ten Most-Respected Global Warming Skeptics.
  Mark Lucas	Mark Lucas had 21 years experience as a certified law enforcement officer before retiring as a Tactical Unit Commander. During his career, he received over 27 awards for service, and now maintains a Top Secret security clearance as the Responsible Party for an Investigations and Security Firm. Mark has investigated thousands of criminal cases in both federal and state jurisdictions, and has overseen thousands more as a supervisor. Mark has worked for both ABC and NBC news since retiring, reporting as a law enforcement expert. He continues to research the effects of Illegal Immigration on the criminal justice system. His breakout session “Illegal Immigration and National Security” details the symbolic handcuffs that the federal government puts on the state, local and INS security forces, and how this affects our national security.
  Ryan Adams	Ryan Adams is the Grassroots Coordinator for the Leadership Institute. Previously, Ryan served at the Deputy PoliticalDirector for the Alabama Republican Party and during the 2010 election cycle, he supervised a regional field staff and assisted in planning and implementing the Alabama Republican Party’s 2010 Ballot Security Initiative. Due to the hard work of Ryan and his team, the Republican Party claimed a majority in state legislature for the first time in 136 years. Prior to the 2010 election cycle, Ryan served as a Victory Field Representative for the Alabama Republican Party. Ryan was embedded with the Wayne Parker for Congress campaign and oversaw the implementation of the grassroots strategy. After the 2008 election, Ryan served as grassroots coordinator in several highly contested state legislative races. Ryan will deliver multiple sessions in the Grassroots Leadership track.
  Nancy Bocskar	Nancy Bocskor, tagged a “Democracy Coach” by a major German newspaper, teaches citizens in the United States and internationally how to communicate with passion to affect change in their communities. The author of “Go Fish: How to Catch (and Keep) Contributors: A Practical Guide to Fundraising,” Nancy is a professor at George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management where she teaches fundraising courses and classes in communications strategy and messaging, ethics and campaign management. She served on the board of the Women’s Campaign School at Yale for seven years, chairing the school’s Curriculum Committee for five years. She serves on two organizations (Running Start and Project 2012) which encourage young women and women 40 and over to run for public office respectively. Most recently, Nancy received the 2010 the Distinguished Alumni Award at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio. Nancy’s sessions are “Public Speaking” and “Earned Media/Public Relations”
  Matt Mayer	Matt A. Mayer is the President of Provisum Strategies, and also serves as a Visiting Fellow with The Heritage Foundation. Mayer’s first book, Homeland Security and Federalism: Protecting America from Outside the Beltway (with Foreward by the Honorable Edwin Meese III), argued for reversing the federalization of homeland security by returning power to states and localities. Mayer’s second book, Taxpayers Don’t Stand a Chance: How Battleground Ohio Loses No Matter Who Wins (and What to Do About It), is due out in June 2012. Formerly, Mayer served as the President of the Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions. Matt has previously taught at The Ohio State University, and was Deputy Director for the Department of Regulatory Agencies in Colorado. He has written articles for law reviews, public policy journals, newspapers, and Townhall.com; given testimony to the U.S. Congress; the Texas House and Senate, and the Ohio House and Senate; and appeared on Fox News, C-SPAN, ONN, and other major media outlets. Matt’s has two breakout sessions, one focusing on the lessons learned from the SB5 debacle, and the other detailing the history of both major parties fleecing the Ohio taxpayer.
  Greg Lawson	Greg R. Lawson is the Statehouse Liaison and Policy Analyst at the Buckeye Institute. Lawson graduated summa cum laude from Ohio State University in 2000 with a Major in Communications and a Minor in Economics. His interest in the intersection of public policy and politics began while in college and fully took off when he became a Legislative Service Commission Intern in 2001 working with a state representative. Lawson took that legislative experience with him to the Ohio Council for Home Care where he focused on Medicaid issues, PAC fundraising and grassroots organizing. Lawson has also served as a Legislative Liaison with the Ohio Department of Commerce. Other positions Lawson has served in include as a public relations strategist with a local PR company, TRIAD Inc. and as Director of Communications for a national hunting advocacy organization based in Columbus, the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance. Lawson has been active at the grassroots level in numerous local, county and statewide political campaigns since 2002. He serves on the boards of two Columbus based charter schools and is a member of the Columbus Council on World Affairs. Greg will deliver multiple sessions on the State Issues track.
  Alison Frasure	Alison Fraser is the Director of the Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies. Fraser is a member of the Fiscal Wake-Up Tour, designed to educate Americans about the nation’s true long-term financial condition and large and growing fiscal imbalance and to encourage Americans to demand action. The tour conducts of town hall forums, business roundtables and editorial board briefings across the country. Fraser has appeared on all CNBC, CNN, FOX and MSNBC news channels, Bloomberg, PBS and the BBC. Her commentaries on fiscal issues have appeared in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Philadelphia Enquirer, National Review Online, Washington Times and USA Today. Before joining Heritage in 2003, Fraser was Deputy Director of the Oklahoma Office of State Finance where she directed economic research and developed tax and fiscal policy recommendations for then-Gov. Frank Keating. Prior to that, she was a budget manager for Orange County, Calif., where she developed recommendations for bankruptcy recovery. Alison’s breakout session “Saving the American Dream” focuses in on the hard road ahead to save the nation from the meddling of the government.
  Hans Bader	CEI’s Counsel for Special Projects is Hans Bader. Coming to CEI in 2003, Hans’s prior casework has included suits involving the First Amendment, federalism, and civil rights issues. He graduated from the University of Virginia with a B.A. in economics and history, and later earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School. Just before joining CEI, Hans was Senior Counsel at the Center for Individual Rights.  Hans’ session, “The Higher Education Bubble” discusses the impact of 3 decades of government-backed student loans in creating an expensive system that does not produce quality graduates.
  Ted Stevenot	Ted Stevenot is a 20+ year small business owner (insurance) turned citizen-activist. After helping start a local liberty-group from scratch in 2009, he helped restructure the entire political landscape in Clermont county. Today, Ted helps teach other citizens about tools they can use to take back their government and hold it accountable. Ted will present the seriew of Candidate Training sessions from American Majority.
  Mike Sullivan	Mike Sullivan is President of Wealth Coach Financial Services, Inc., a financial firm dedicated to helping clients navigate a world of blatantly broken math. He is a Certified Financial Planning Professional® that serves both business and individual clients in Ohio and many other states around the USA. Mike is a frequent speaker on topics that include securities markets, investment strategies, economic bubbles, private versus public pensions, energy, monetary policy, the Federal Reserve system and many other topics. He is very pleased to share his views on the topic of Identifying Economic Bubbles at this year’s 2012 WeThePeopleConvention.
  Michael Duncan	Michael Duncan is the Communications Manager at FreedomWorks. Michael is an expert in social media, online marketing, and campaign message strategy. He is a Hoosier native and graduate of Indiana University, where he received a Bachelor’s in Journalism and Political Science.
  Brendan Steinhauser	Brendan Steinhauser is the Federal and State Campaigns Director at FreedomWorks. He graduated from The University of Texas, where he led the UT chapter of The Young Conservatives of Texas. Brendan received university honors and was inducted into the National Society for Collegiate Scholars and the Golden Key International Honour Society. Brendan was the lead organizer of the September 12, 2009 Taxpayer March on Washington, which was the largest protest by limited government activists in U.S. history. He is a leader in the “tea party movement” which began in February of 2009, and saw millions of conservatives take to the streets to protest bailouts, the failed stimulus programs and government spending.